“He’s got all the Manchester values. He actually cares and he’s passionate about always doing the right thing.

“At the same time I think he’s a man of total integrity, and when you put all of those characteristics together, and his very strong strategic focus, then I hope he will continue to play a very strong role in Manchester’s strategic direction for the next couple of decades.”

Sir Howard Bernstein will step down from the council in March

Bernstein joined the city council in 1971 as a 17-year-old, and said he remained “hugely excited for the future of Manchester”.

He highlighted the city hosting the Commonwealth Games in 2002 as one of his proudest achievements.

How the interior of the St Michael’s project skyscrapers may look

“I think the Commonwealth Games for Manchester gave us opportunities to start to build on the Olympic vision and start to develop around east Manchester the real infrastructure that was needed,” he said.

“I think it has also been important to the UK’s story because people often forget what Britain’s prestige was in the world where sport was concerned in the late Nineties. It was pretty low.